OMG, I have great Indian cookbooks.

It's a sad fact that it takes me a couple of weeks to actually cook something once I think of the recipe. Generally, I buy most of the ingredients for a recipe, but not all of them, then don't make it to the store again for another week, and by then things are starting to turn south.

Luckily, there are frozen veggies & I do manage to keep us stocked in onions and garlic. And, I stocked up on Indian spices & dal (various kinds) last year, when I cashed in my yearly Amazon gc for these two books:

Healthy South Indian Cooking, by Alamelu Vairavan and Patricia Marquardt

and

An Invitation to Indian Cooking, by Madhur Jaffrey

Best. Purchase. Ever.

I love Indian food, but there is no place here in Pittsburgh that either: 1) is really great; or 2)delivers to our neighborhood. Much less both. And, it's cheaper to cook for us than to eat out all the time. And less greasy.

Plus, we get awesome lunch the next day.

So, I'd been planning to make Eggplant Masala (really good) from HSIC (see above), but ended up using the eggplant I bought to make homemade Baba Ghanouj (from a different cookbook - Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (my Bible of Vegetarian)). We brought a middle eastern feast to a friends' house for an Equinox party on Saturday, and ate all the leftovers last night.

But back to Indian food. I know Drew loves Biryani, so I planned around that. Frozen chicken breasts? On sale at Giant Eagle, I think 1.79/lb for 3 lbs? Check. Cashews? I bought those too, but won't say how much I paid. Raisins? Check.

The instructions for chicken biryani have you make something else first - Garlic & Pepper Chicken (HSIC). So I made this tonight, along with Green Beans Poriyal.

Garlic Pepper & Chicken
paraphrased from HSIC

I used 3 lbs of chicken, and so had to multiply everything by 1.5 to make it even out. When I cook, I often estimate, so everything is sort of variable (I swear, I do not do this with science recipes). Cut the chicken up into medium (on the small side) pieces. Roughly chop up ~ 15 cloves of garlic. Chop up 1 med-lg onion, probably about 1 cup chopped. Measure out the following, preparing little cups/piles of spices (so you can throw spices in quickly while cooking!): 1) 5 small pieces of stick cinnamon, 2 bay leaves (crumbled), 4 dried chilis (I used Sanaam India Chili Peppers from Penzey's); 2) 1 tsp cumin seeds (I didn't have these so I skipped them), 3/4 tsp fennel seeds, 1.5 tsp urad dal; 3) 2 tsp ground black pepper, 2 tsp cumin powder, 2 tsp salt, 1.5 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp cayenne powder, 1/4 C chopped fresh coriander. Also put the garlic & onion together to be added at once. Finally, mince 2 tbsp on ginger root.

Heat 3 tbsp of canola oil in large skillet (I use my two handled Calphalon cast iron pan (thanks Kristen & Al!). When oil is hot, but not smoking*, add cinnamon sticks, bay leaf, & chili peppers (Group 1 above). Add cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and urad dal (Group 2 above). Add onion & garlic. Saute 3-4 mins & stir in 1 tsp turmeric powder. Add chicken & ginger. Cook covered over low heat until the chicken is partially cooked.

Add black pepper, etc. (Group 3 above). Stir well to coat chicken pieces. Add 1/2 cup of water, stir & recover. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes. When done, serve over rice (Jasmine or Basmati - we used white Basmati tonight, but often we go for the brown Basmati, done in a rice cooker).

I tried some at this point, and it was already good, but I cut my chicken pieces to large, so it needed more cooking. Also, I was behind on the other parts of the meal, and the sauce was a little watery, so I turned the heat down a little, and recovered.

In the end, this was really tasty, but I definitely should have gone smaller on the meat pieces.


I also made Green Beans Poriyal (almost verbatim from Healthy South Indian Cooking, by Alamelu Vairavan and Patricia Marquardt
)

Again, keep in mind that things happend quickly when you start - so it helps a lot to group the spices together in small dishes. Silicone cupcake holders actually work really well for this purpose (thanks Mom!). However, I will let you sort out what goes with what :)

Boil 2 cups water, add 1/4 cup yellow split peas & 1/4 tsp turmeric powder. Cook over medium heat, uncovered, for 20 minutes, or until peas are done. Drain & set aside. Or, if you're like me, you'll start the next step before the peas are done, end up draining them too soon, then trying to figure out how to cook them just a bit more after you've already added them to the green beans.

Heat 2 tbsp canola oil (I used 1.5, as I had just reseasoned my other cast iron skillet, I figured I needed less oil) in a skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, but not smoking**, throw in 1 tsp black mustard seeds and 2 tsp urad dal. Stir very quickly to distribute these through the oil, then cover and heat until the mustard seeds pop. When the popping slows/stops, uncover and add 16 oz. frozen green beans. You could use fresh, which is what the original recipe called for, but mine went bad, so I used back-up supplies. If you use frozen, watch out when you put them in, since the moisture + really hot oil doesn't always end well. Add 1 tsp minced fresh ginger, stir, and cook 1-2 mins over medium heat. Add 1 tsp salt & 1/2 tsp chutney powder*** and stir. Cover the whole thing & cook over low heat for 5 minutes.

Add cooked split peas & 1/4 cup powdered coconut. Mix well & remove from heat, covered, until ready to serve. Or, when you suspect the split peas aren't cooked, add ~ 1/4 cup of water to the whole thing, cover, & cook on low heat for another 8-10 minutes. You have the time, because you forgot to actually turn the rice cooker on, so you've got another 20 minutes before dinner. Pour youself a glass of wine, do some dishes, or just catch up with your SO while you wait.



* This is how every single recipe in this book starts. Pretty much.
** Ha! Told you.
*** I don't have this. I don't even have any idea what it is.